TDF 2020, Stage 15 Lyon – Grand Colombier 174.5 km
Jumbo-Visma dominate up Grand Colombier, Bernal and Quintana lose minutes, but Pogacar still wins stage in a sprint.
DENVER, CO—Dear Readers, it was an absolutely historic day on the Tour de France, and yet it does not feel like it at all—why, the casual fans may not even have noticed it. As far as dynamic bicycle racing that leaves us wanting more, this was probably the worst day of this year’s Tour. To be sure, the racing was hard, but alas! it was one of those days where that did not come across on screen for us viewers to properly perceive. But make no mistake dear Readers, today we saw a new team deal a definitive blow to the Imperial Empire that has dominated the Tour for a decade. They did not even win the stage, but their performance sent shockwaves through the peloton like the victory on Endor did a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Who could have foreseen this Rebel Alliance’s rise and this humiliating defeat for the Ineos-Empire coming just a few years ago?
From the mid-1990s through the first 12 years of the new century the Dutch financial services company Rabobank sponsored a top-level Dutch-DNA professional cycling team that had already existed since the mid-1980s. But by the end of 2012, the Rabobank company was so sick of the doping scandals in cycling that they finally pulled their sponsorship. Though this Dutch-DNA team continued on, it really became a new team altogether. I remember their next incarnation, Belkin. I remember only two things about this team. I remember their rider Lars Boom, a former cyclocross champion, winning Stage 5 of the 2014 Tour over the muddy cobbles when Vincenzo Nibali, on Astana at the time, put in such an excellent ride for himself to take a commanding GC lead, that same day is when Chris Froome (Team Sky at the time) crashed out of the Tour—do you also remember the day, dear Readers? I promise you, if you watched that Tour you remember that day: the storms were biblical, the carnage was extreme, I do not exaggerate here, it absolutely was a legendary day. The only other thing I remember about Belkin is that afterwards, when I was buying HDMI cords to hook-up the laptop to the TV, I chose theirs over competitors purely because of their sponsorship. In 2014, I do not know if the management was the same as it is today, were they already trying to plant seeds back then to be a Grand Tour team that could compete with the might of the already Imperial Empire-like dominance of Team Sky?
Fast-forward to the 2016 Giro d’Italia with me, dear Readers, and surely by this time the seeds had been planted and were even starting to be watered. I remember watching that opening Individual Time Trial in the Netherlands: an absolute no-name had set the best time early in the day over a short 10 km course. He was sitting in the hot-seat for hours, all the headliners of that 2016 Giro were going off last: though the leaderboard was tight, it became clear only two could challenge this best time. Spartacus Fabian Cancellara, four times Time Trial World Champion with the goal to wear the maglia rosa for the first time in his last season, failed to beat the time. But the last man off down the ramp, in the Dutch TT Champion’s Skinsuit, did beat the best time by less than a second, and his name was Tom Dumoulin (then on Giant-Alpecin). And who was the no-name that sat in the hot-seat with the best time for most of the day? Primoz Roglic of the LottoNL-Jumbo team. Yup, this was when many of us heard his name for the first time—unless in 2015 you had watched either the Tour d’Azerbaidjan or the Tour of Slovenia. And yes, after Belkin the Dutch lottery and the Jumbo supermarket chain took over title sponsorship of the team. And at that time not only was the emerging Roglic on that Giro team, its GC rider was Steven Kruijswijk, The Human Coat-Hanger (big shoulders, skinny body). On Stage 9, another Individual Time Trial, Roglic went one place better than the last time trial to take his first Grand Tour stage win…this was also the day when every commentator found out he was a former world-class ski jumper. But Steven Kruijswijk out did Roglic that Giro. On a stage in the Dolomites, Kruijswijk and Estaban Chaves (on then still called Orica-GreenEdge) left for dead Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Vincenzo Nibali (still on Astana), and Kruijswijk went into the Pink Jersey as race leader. It was surprising for many of us, but we were excited and impressed by this second or third tier GC rider having the race of his life: he looked totally in control and had not put a toe wrong…until Stage 19. O! Dear Readers, if you saw that crash on Stage 19 you still remember it, Kruijswijk’s crash was horrific in itself—his pedal scraped the side of the large embankment of snow flipping him straight over the handlebars at such high speeds—but we also knew then that his Giro win was in severe jeopardy, because Nibali—the Shark of Messina—smelled blood in the water and had risen from the dead. Kruijswijk managed to only finish 4th Overall that Giro, because of the crash. In interviews over the years, it seems like management realized, possibly even at the time, Kriujswijk’s 2016 Giro was all too much too soon. It was too good to be true, because they were not ready to support him on that scale at that time…but they were already working to assemble a Grand Tour-contending team.
Yes, during those years Team Sky was at the top of the sport with GC leader Chris Froome the undisputed Grand Tour rider of his generation swaggering about France, Italy, and Spain with Darth Vader-like confidence. Their fiercest competition around that time came from the talented but old-school Spanish Movistar Team. The likes of Nairo Quintana, Alejandro Valverde, and Mikel Landa did trouble Sky’s thoughts at times, but this ramshackle Rebellion never actually threatened Sky’s dominance. And when Chris Froome was off his best, Geraint Thomas (Sky/Ineos) and Egan Bernal (Sky/Ineos) perfectly filled the void in the Empire’s leadership. But quietly, on the periphery, Jumbo was actively building a team to challenge that dominance, a more sophisticated Rebel Alliance. Primoz Roglic continued to go from strength to strength, taking perfect incremental steps—no massive leaps forward, but more importantly zero setbacks along the way. In 2017, Roglic won the GC at smaller races and started taking road stage wins in the World Tour weeklong stage races; he capped off the season with a Tour de France stage win and 2nd to Dumoulin in the Time Trial World Championships. In 2018, Roglic went back to those World Tour weeklong stage races and won them Overall; additionally, he took another Tour stage and finished 4th Overall with teammate Kruijswijk right behind him in 5th Overall. In that 2018 Tour, Jumbo was on the fringes no longer, the Empire put them on their radar. It was clear that if any team was to challenge Ineos’ supremacy they were the New Hope. But in 2019, they still knew they were not ready or at full strength. Roglic was lights-out in the early season, but they sent him to the Giro where he finished 3rd; he was the red-hot favorite going into the race and he was in the lead until he faded in the third week. Perhaps that could be seen as a setback, but looking at his progression: 3rd was still his best result at a Grand Tour. While at the Tour, Jumbo were winning left and right: Mike Teunissen and Dylan Groenewegen sprint wins, a Team Time Trial victory, the newly-signed Wout Van Aert crosswinds stage, and Kruijswijk’s podium finish were all steps forward. And finally, two months later, at the Vuelta a Espana, Primoz Roglic won the team’s first Grand Tour. This past winter, they signed Tom Dumoulin, 2017 Giro champion and runner-up in both the 2018 Giro and Tour; the Dutch Grand Tour hero was joining the premier Dutch team—surely it was a homecoming. Thus Jumbo-Visma were finally ready to compete with the Sky-Ineos Empire in open battle, and they made their intentions clear when they announced Roglic, Dumoulin, and Kruijswijk would all be going to the 2020 Tour de France together.
And if you peruse my Tour preview talking of Jumbo’s early skirmishes with Ineos at Tour de l’Ain and the Dauphine and throw in Van Aert’s wins straight out of the gates from lockdown, then dear Readers, you are caught up on Jumbo-Visma’s progression until this Tour. Alas! Kruijswijk crashed out of the Dauphine and was not healthy enough to start this Tour, it is a shame he is not here. It is a shame, because he is the individual that best embodies the team’s ethos: meticulous work-ethic, steady progression, generous self-sacrifice. With such model qualities, Jumbo-Visma has now reached the goal they have been building towards—would that Kruijswijk were physically with them. Yes, for the past fortnight Jumbo-Visma have been the best team at the Tour de France. And finally today, for the first time—by Jumbo’s strength—the Sky/Ineos Imperial Fleet has been toppled at the Tour. Today on the lower slopes of the Grand Colombier—on the famous picturesque snaky-switchbacks part—Egan Bernal completely cracked. The leading group still had about 20 riders left and the five on the front were from Jumbo-Visma: Wout Van Aert drilling the pace, George Bennett waiting in the wings, then Tom Dumoulin, Sepp Kuss, and Primoz Roglic in Yellow. Van Aert finished a massive turn, George Bennett did a massive turn afterwards, and Dumoulin out did them both. He worked all the way to the last 600 meters of the stage, Sepp Kuss did not even get a chance to do a share of the work. For the whole 17 km climb only Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) tried an attack that went nowhere. The other riders in the Top 10 on GC stayed with them, but in the sprint during the final 600 meters of the stage: it was only Tadej Pogacar (UAE) that could get the better of Roglic to take the stage win. Over 7 minutes later, Egan Bernal, with a couple of Ineos teammates, finally crossed the finish line, his hopes of winning the 2020 Tour de France completely dead—for at least a time the galactic peloton was now free of Imperial domination.
Dear Readers, watching that finish today left me stunned and puzzled. It is a historic day, the mighty one—team in this case—has surprisingly but finally fallen. And yet there were no fireworks—not even a bottle-rocket really. Not a single fan was on the Colombier to even get some adrenaline pumping. The stage may have been hard racing but it was very dull viewing, and it was unexpected and anti-climactic Ineos’ defending champion—or Sith lord—could implode so severely with such little fight. From what I gather, in the 1996 Tour when Miguel Indurain—already winner of five Tours in a row—finally and unexpectedly cracked, the day was absolutely filled with fireworks. Same with Merckx in ’75, and the end of the Hinault era in ’86. Even Armstrong, though his was delayed, and was off the bike, and cost him everything, his downfall in the courts and media had fireworks. Perhaps its different this time, because it was a mighty team defeated by another mighty team and presumably both teams will reload and clash in future conflicts. Perhaps we need to find out more about how or why Bernal imploded before we can formulate more thoughts. Truly, I am at a loss, I can say no more on Ineos today which is why I have focused on the accomplishment of Jumbo-Visma. Finally, after 5+ years of work, they have reached their goal, they have assembled an Alliance of riders at the Tour de France that could defeat the Empire. But perhaps never again can we consider Jumbo-Visma the Rebels, perhaps now they look to set up a New Empire, now that for the moment they are the top team in the world. Perhaps it is flattering and fitting and more unequivocally clear that they have reached the summit, because their performance was so suffocating-ly strong and boring today. Team Sky at its most dominant best was boring to watch, and it has been the same with the most dominant individuals in the past: Merckx, Hinault, Indurain, Lance, Van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) in Cross, at their best there was no real competition for them. But the Tour is not over. Roglic himself has not yet climbed to the highest step in his perfectly incremental progression: wearing Yellow in Paris. Roglic and Jumbo-Visma must still defeat Pogacar—and the others, each still with a very outside shot of winning. But today Jumbo-Visma have defeated the Empire, they have done what no one has been able to do for a decade, and now they are the top team themselves. Who knows what Ineos will try to do in the last week of this Tour, in the Giro and Vuelta later this season, and what they will do next year; but today they have been vanquished by a superior team for the first time and this is a date worth remembering. Congratulations, Jumbo-Visma, you have accomplished something great today, but the job is not finished. Perhaps, perhaps it is most like the 1980 Olympics, when the US hockey team upset the Soviets in the semi-finals: that was a legendary and historic day, but the US team was not finished. They still had their hands full with Sweden in the Gold Medal game in order to complete the fairy-tale, and it seems in this last week you Jumbo-Visma lads will have some trouble with Roglic’s pesky and talented “little brother.” Enjoy the Rest Day tomorrow, surely you all will sleep well as all great athletes and warriors do after they slay the giant, defeat the Soviets, or blow up the Death Star.
Cycling Odysseys 